From trauma to triumph Stephens-Higgins publishes children’s book
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by Darrell Dodge
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
Those words from 19th-century American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson could certainly apply today to describe Terri Stephens-Higgins on her journey from over-coming physical and mental challenges to become the author of a children’s book, “Bella Bean on Blueberry Lane: The Puppy Wonder” on the important topic of seeking help for brain health.
“Bella Bean” is the story of a peppy little puppy who loves to romp and play with her doggy
friends in the park. She’s bright-eyed, always happy and always the life of the puppy party.
Until one day she’s not.
Something seems off. Bella’s pep begins to fade. The park holds less and less attraction. No longer bright-eyed, no longer happy, for her the party seems over. And she can’t understand why.
She’s not physically ill. No one has said anything mean or mistreated her. Bella’s friends and the park are still out there waiting for her, but she can’t bring herself to leave the house, much less have fun.
Then one day her mother asks Bella if she needs help – and Bella says yes, her answer making all the
difference in her life and in the lives of those who love her.
Bella’s story, however, carried a long history prior to its publication this year.
In 2010, Higgins underwent a fairly routine surgery that was followed by an unexpectedly long
recovery period.
“As you might imagine, people are starting to ask questions, you know, like, why are you [not] getting
better? What’s wrong? What’s wrong with you?” Higgins said. “And I started not to be able to answer those questions. And at that point, I kind of started spiraling, and it became a lot more than the medical
issues that I was having. It also became related to mental health, and that was something I was very unfamiliar with, so I did not immediately recognize it, but I just went down a deeper and darker path to a bad place, and then I was really struggling how to fix it.”
One day, when Higgins was visiting her parents, Barbara and Jerry Stephens of Diagonal, her mother asked her, “Terri, do you need help?”
“And the first words out of my mouth were ‘I don’t know,’ Higgins recalled. “And I didn’t know, and
I didn’t know what I was going through, and I didn’t know how to fix it, and at that point, I did not know if I was ever going to be the same again.”
Fortunately, that simple conversation resulted in a series of serious conversations with her doctor who
was able to guide Higgins on her path to recovery.
“So through mental health help and medical help, I was able to get myself back on track,” Higgins said. “And over a period of time, you know, I got off all the medications that I was on and felt better, went back to work, worked full time, and had this [book] in the back of my head.”
As Higgins grew stronger, her urge to write grew as well.
“As a marketing director, I love to write,” Higgins said, “That’s how the story about this little dog began. And this little dog is a mini me, and it was therapeutic to write it as well. So I had probably the first draft done within a year or two.”
All seemed back to normal in Higgins’ world until April of 2024.
“I had had kind of miscellaneous spells in my head that I could not explain,” Higgins said, “and the best way that I can explain it is it felt like a rush of something was moving from front to back of my head, and it would make me very off balance a little, just disoriented and not myself.”
These spells increased in number and intensity over the coming months until April 9, 2024, when Higgins found herself in the emergency room at Greater Regional Medical Center in Creston.
“I thought maybe I was having a stroke,” Higgins said. When stroke tests came back negative, the doctor ordered a brain scan, which revealed the cause of Higgins’ symptoms.
“He comes back in, and he’s got this picture of my brain with this object the size of a lime in my head,” Higgins said.
The object in Higgins’ brain was diagnosed as a meningioma.
“Meningioma is a type of brain tumor that often-times is benign,” Higgins explained, “but the problem with them is they grow and grow, and people do not know they’re there until they start push- ing and shoving and making room for themselves, and meanwhile, everything else in your head is being crowded.”
Having overcome her earlier depression, Higgins was now faced with an even larger challenge.
“So I went home that night, just dumbfounded, and of course, telling your parents, telling your kids, telling my in-laws and …” Higgins paused. “Honestly, until you’re in a situation like that you don’t know how you’ll react. And one thing I found that night, I think I became the strong one, because you have control over your journey, and they don’t, and it was so hard seeing them feel so helpless.”
In June, Higgins had her first consultation with a neurosurgeon, but that long wait time allowed for some serious self-reflection.
“So I spent probably, oh, a good two or three weeks throwing a big old pity party for myself,” Higgins said, “and I was miserable, and I didn’t know what I was going to do … it was during that time that I extraordinarily got in touch with my faith, and I thought back to my 2010 experience, and what I was not going to go through again if I had any control over it at all. And at that time, I picked myself up by my bootstraps, and I said, ‘I am going to do this.’”
Higgins became more focused on her writing.
“It was right around that time that I thought back to all of my stories, and the thought crossed my mind, if I’m not going to be on this earth, I’m going to write these books because I want my grandkids to see them, my great grandkids to see them,” Higgins said. “You need to keep busy, and you need to keep your mind occupied. Dust the dust off of those things. God is giving you some time to work on some stuff. Do it!”
Before long, Higgins was in contact with the children’s editor at Christian Faith Publishing, who agreed to read two of Higgins’ manuscripts.
Soon, the editor called her back.
“The very first words out of her mouth when she called back, she said, ‘Terri, you are a writer, and you need to keep writing. I’m going to tell you right now either one of these manuscripts would be approved, but I think with your current situation, we need to go with the one about the puppy.”
A long, extensive surgery on August 19, 2024, removed most of the largest of several meningioma tumors, and a second surgery on February 20, 2025, removed the second-largest tumor, with five more remaining.
The recovery periods allowed time for work on Bella Bean.
“During those weeks and weeks that I had to take off work, it worked out so well because then I could focus on my book,” Higgins said. “Julie [her editor] from the beginning knew that I was a brain tumor patient, and this was not going to be easy, so she spread that word to the person that I worked with the whole way through the process, and so she knew if there were periods where Terri didn’t respond, it’s probably because Terri was still out of commission.”
Ironically, the publication of “Bella Bean on Blueberry Lane: The Puppy Wonder” came on August 19, 2025, the one-year anniversary of her first brain surgery. August 19 is also her grandparents’ anniversary.
“There have been signs all the way. It’s just been wild,” Higgins said. “I never, ever dreamed that
going through something like this, you would be able to see positives. But I am to that point, you know, I’ve been at my lowest lows and my highest highs, and just the whole experience of life is just completely humbling and extraordinary.”
* * *
Author Terri Stephens-Higgins will read her book, “Bella Bean on Blueberry Lane,” at the Mount Ayr Public Library at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, October 21. Signed copies will also be available for purchase.
